The Art World is Too Safe Now: H.R. Giger has Died

Kalliopi Monoyios is an independent science illustrator and a certified science geek. She is the illustrator of three popular science books: Neil Shubin's Your Inner Fish and The Universe Within, and Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True. Find her at www.kalliopimonoyios.com and @eyeforscience.

Katie McKissick is a former high school biology teacher turned science writer and cartoonist based in Los Angeles, CA. Her first book is called What’s in Your Genes? and will be in bookstores December 2013. She tweets @beatricebiology. Her work can be found at www.beatricebiologist.com.

Hans Ruedi Giger gave us machines moving like flesh. His airbrush compositions are strongly considered to be descendants of Dalí though I have always felt the unease, the dark mirror of the 1890 Symbolists behind his work. If you cracked open the biomechanoid shell, I always assumed the devastating mythologies of Khnopff, Böcklin and Delville would come pouring out. His paintings were the work of sperm, bullet casings, grotty stone and soft cheekbones. It was not made to be beautiful, it was made to unsettle.

H.R. Giger was a giant of the 20th Century, I am sure fine art history and illustration books and blogs will record through history. From Fine Art to Concept Art: paintings, movies and even inspiration for video games. H.R. Giger was the bridge from fine art galleries to the interactive age. He saw what we could become and shook us with it.

For those who want to learn more about him, I highly recommend HR Giger ARh+ published by Taschen: much of it is in the artist’s own words. In his biography I discovered we had a shared childhood nightmare, about an endless shaft of thin stairs leading down in the dark. That nightmare felt like a link to Giger, and from him I became more interested in the Symbolists, studying them in university.

Giger’s work unsettled me as a painter and drove me like it did so many others. Are you another painter who paints, in some small way, because of Giger? Share your stories and links to your art in the comments below. Perhaps we will follow-up with a post of art inspired by Giger here on Symbiartic.

Giger is dead. His shadow remains cast over our future. The shadow moves.

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Condolences to his friends and to his wife, Carmen , Director of the HR Giger Museum.

Giger’s art always made me feel uncomfortable and disturbed, but in the best way possible. I am greatly drawn to disturbing, otherworldly art. Giger’s paintings were a certain biomechanical sort of body horror; a melding of flesh and steel, organic in a way–one wonders if the flesh-and-blood components are aware, tortured in their steel cages.

I was never all that interested in the strong sexual themes in his work–not because I was adverse to them, but they just didn’t interest me. That wasn’t what I took from his work. Of course, he’ll forever be remembered for his work on the Alien films, but it’s much more personal for me. His body of work encompasses themes which evoke fear and discomfort (in me, anyway). Art NEEDS that. The world is much poorer for his passing.

Such sad news! As a fan of sci-fi and surrealism, I recently saw the indie movie Jodorowsky’s Dune http://jodorowskysdune.com a documentary which is receiving some acclaim. It’s a story about a movie that was never made. But the incredible artists’ who produced the storyboards (Moebius), characters (Chris Foss), and backgrounds (H.R Gieger) set the stage for all future sci-fi movies. Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, and Mick Jagger were to star in the movie…if you’re a fan of Gieger, go see this movie!

Fusing the erotic, gothic and surreal Giger was an art movement unto himself. He inspired me from an early age with his fantastic dreamscapes and esoteric imagery. I was compelled to illustrate a tribute to him this week drawing imagery from his own works including Alien and the Birthing Machine at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2014/05/in-memoriam-hr-giger.html . Drop by and share how his artwork opened your own mind!